Also swing swong. [Reduplicated f. SWING v.1 with change of vowel.] A swinging to and fro; a (double or complete) oscillation; a reciprocating movement, occas. see-saw. Also fig. and attrib.
c. 1683. Hooke, Posth. Wks. (1705), 472. Not that I pretend to discover any new Thing,… ’tis … as trivial as the pendulous vibrating Motion, which, in Contempt, hath been call’d Swing Swangs.
1773. C. Dibdin, Deserter, I. ii. (1775), 10. The parish-bell may, toll, Gra’mercy on my soul! Ding dong! Swing swong!
1829. R. L. Sheil, in New Monthly Mag., Aug., 98. In a beautiful walk of trees, which ran down from the rear of the building through the play-ground, I saw several French boys playing at swing-swang.
1829. [H. Best], Pers. & Lit. Mem., 174. A friend of mine at Oxford called it the swing-swang style.
1887. Max Müller, in Fortn. Rev., May, 704. Is, then, our knowledge nothing but a perpetual swing-swang?
1910. G. Chrystal, Seiches, etc. Lake Surfaces, i. 29. The swing-swang of a clock-pendulum.
